


Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

by Razzaroo



Series: Ain't That A Grand And Glorious Feeling? [1]
Category: Black Cat
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 09:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2265420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Razzaroo/pseuds/Razzaroo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Rinslet Walker would not be afraid to admit that Prohibition was probably one of the best things to happen in her life." Being a gangster's girlfriend has its dark side, just as much as it has its positives. 1920s AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Rinslet Walker would not be afraid to admit that Prohibition was probably one of the best things to happen in her life. Not because she grew up in an environment damaged by alcohol; her mother had been religious enough to keep alcohol out of the house and her father had kept his drinking in moderation, else he'd incur the disdain of his wife.

No, her contentment with Prohibition came from what she knew to be pure selfishness. Firstly, her parents, particularly her mother, were happier over the banning of alcohol to fret too much over how she acted these days; they assumed that her "flapper behaviour" was just a phase she was going through, something she would break out of once she was married and settled down.

Second, banning alcohol opened up a  _very_  profitable black market for liquor, which Rinslet's current sweetheart was taking full advantage of.

She drew her coat closer around her, shivering in the biting wind that whistled down the street. Long, dark brown and trimmed with fur, it was the only thing her mother had given her that didn't look like it had come out of the last century.

The door she was looking for was small, plain and black and was set into a dirty red brick wall; it didn't stand out, apart from the small peephole set just above Rinslet's eye level. She hopped down the steps leading up to it and knocked twice on the door, fishing in her pocket for her ID card.

There's a pause before the peephole opened and she held her card up. The sound of soft piano playing filtered out of the hole before it slid shut again and the door swung open. She put the card back into her pocket and stepped through the open door. She grinned at the man who'd let her in and waved him off when he offered to take her coat.

The walls of the speakeasy were plain red brick and the flooring was dark, polished wood. Most of the tables were empty, considering the time of day, so the chairs are upturned on the tabletops. To the left of the door, a man with chestnut brown hair and a goatee was playing the slightly battered piano while a blond man wearing dark glasses sat alongside him on the piano bench. Rinslet recognised them as regular visitors to the speakeasy and doesn't give them a second glance. The few patrons at the tables watched her as she passed; one of them wolf whistled and she turned to him, offering a flirtatious smile and a wink.

If it kept the customers happy, Rinslet could put up with some whistling. She could have Jenos turn them out if they went too far.

The wall behind the bar was lined with dark bottles with handwritten labels. Jenos stands with his back to her, a pencil tucked behind his ear. Rinslet reaches over the bar and taps him on the shoulder; he flinches before he turns to face her, a notebook in one hand.

"Thought I was here to take you to the big house?" she asked.

He grinned at her, "Course not. You wouldn't have been so quiet if you were."

She took the notebook from his hands, scanning the page, "Busy week."

"Yeah," Jenos said with a sigh. He took the notebook back from her and flipped it closed, "Apparently, there's been some raids lately. I've picked up some new customers."

"They're onto you, Jenos," Rinslet said, "Start watching your back."

"Come on, baby," Jenos said, giving her that dazzling smile he showed all the girls, "You know the only truly honest cop retired ages ago. We're safe."

Rinslet fell silent and watched him for a moment while he went back to his stock take. When she was a little girl, she'd watched her father doing something similar in the shop that he'd owned and worked in with her mother. She smiled as she imagined what her mother would say if she heard Rinslet comparing her parents to Jenos; she'd probably be scandalised if she heard that an illegal speakeasy reminded Rinslet of their dinky little general store.

"Are you still coming out tonight?" she asked, "You left me high and dry last time."

"I know." Jenos set the notebook down and looked at her apologetically, "Something got out of hand and I had to help sort it out. Not going to happen tonight; Nizer is officially king of this place until we're done and he can sort anything out on his own."

"That explains the stock take," Rinslet said.

Jenos stepped out from behind the bar and caught her around the waist. He leant in to kiss her but she turned her head to the side so he only caught the corner of her mouth.

"Bank's closed, honey," she said, "You'll have to wait 'til tonight."

Jenos just grinned and gave her a light kiss on the cheek, even as she pushed him away and fixed her hat.

"I can be patient."

Rinslet's mouth quirked up into a smile again, "I'll make a gentleman out of you yet."

* * *

"Well, how was our first movie together?" Rinslet asked as they made their way back to the apartment that they shared.

"The leading lady was gorgeous," Jenos replied, "I'm going to have to find out what her name was. Echidna something, I think."

Rinslet rolled her eyes, "Her hair is the same length as my mother's."

"And your mother is a very lovely lady."

"Don't let her hear you say that."

Jenos chuckled and Rinslet smiled. She allowed him to slip his arm around her shoulders, grateful for the warmth. This was one of the few dates that he'd managed to stay for the whole time without having to be called away.

"So what are your plans for tomorrow?" he asked, holding the door of their apartment block open for her.

"Sleep in for as long as I want," she said with a contented sigh, "And then I need to do a bit of a tidy up. You can clean up your own mess."

He didn't reply and she looked at him to find him frowning slightly. She followed his gaze to see that Nizer was waiting outside of their apartment door, cigarette in hand.

"What are you doing here?" Jenos asked, "Who have you left behind the bar?"

"Sephiria has a sudden job for us," Nizer replied, "I did say you were busy tonight."

"Why can't she get Baldor to do it?"

Rinslet looked between the two men. There's a sort of tension, as if they're holding something back because she was there. She felt almost offended; they knew she could be trusted. She hadn't said anything that would cast Jenos in a guilty light yet. Neither the police nor, more importantly, her parents had any idea where Jenos's money came from.

"She says it needs a certain degree of subtlety," Nizer said, "Baldor isn't what any sane person would call subtle."

Jenos sighed and ran a hand through his hair before he turned to Rinslet. He brushed some of her hair away from her face and gently kissed her; she allowed it, despite being annoyed at him.

"I'm sorry, baby, but we're going to have to cut the night short," he said, "I've really gotta go. I'm sorry."

He pressed the key to the apartment into her hand and she gives him an annoyed look, even as he offers his most charming and apologetic smile. He headed back down stairs again, Nizer on his heels. Rinslet folded her arms over her chest, annoyance rising up in her chest, her hand clenched tightly around the key. She glanced at the door and huffed before she unlocked it and entered the dark apartment.

"Why doesn't he just tell me where he's going?" she muttered, "What is he so determined to keep hidden? Evasive ass."

She flicked the switch for the electric light in the bedroom and sat down in front of her mirror to remove her makeup. For a moment, she just sat there, her mouth forming an annoyed pout. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting. Jenos was secretive about a lot of the things he did; while Rinslet knew he was somehow involved with one of the gangs that lurked in the city, she just assumed that he was only involved with the provision of illegal alcohol. It was only his increasingly secretive behaviour and constantly having to leave that was making her suspicious.

Rinslet shook her head and picked up her hairbrush. While it was annoying and pain in the neck, was it really her business where he went? Especially since she rarely told him where she was going, only why she was going somewhere.

She undressed and pulled on her nightgown, before flicking the light off and getting into bed. She sighed and rolled onto her side, her back facing the window.

The bed was cold.

* * *

She was woken up in the small hours of the morning by a loud bang on the street outside. She sat up in bed, blinking blearily against the dark of the room, and looked over at the window. She pushed the blanket off and went over to the window, pushing the curtains aside and peering into the street.

The street outside was empty. Across the road, there was a half-finished apartment block; it had been under construction since Rinslet had moved in. She could see a low, dim light glowing in one of the windows. When one of the huge doors swung open, she ducked behind the curtain, peering around the edge. The light in the window went out and now the only light came from the streetlights.

Rinslet's grip on the curtain tightened when she saw who'd come out of the building. Jenos stood in the pool of light cast by the streetlight, his hands tucked into his coat pockets against the cold. Even from a distance, Rinslet could see the dark smear across his face. A moment later, Nizer joined him; the other man had a bruise forming on his cheek but nothing else.

She was about to leave the window and go back to bed when some movement within the building caught her eye. A third figure lurked in the doorway and, for a moment, Rinslet thought Nizer and Jenos hadn't noticed. As she watched, Jenos frowned, turning to look behind him. There was a flash of silver in the lamplight. Before the other person had time to react, Jenos had pulled the trigger, the gun going off with a crack. Rinslet recoiled from the window as a man slumped out of the doorway, blood pooling on the ground. Jenos's expression didn't change; he stayed impassive, cold.

It was hard to match that up with the man Rinslet had been sharing her life with for the past few months.

Her cheeks burnt with embarrassment; how had she not guessed? What happened to the woman who'd managed to track down Jenos's speakeasy based only on a description? Where had the little girl who'd guessed about her father's secret stash of tobacco was just based on his body language gone?

She'd become a sap over the years, that's for sure. She lay back again, rolling onto her side and burying her face in the pillow. It still hadn't completely sunk in. Jenos had just killed a man; she'd stood at the window and watched him shoot someone and no one had come to stop it. No police, nobody.

She had to leave, to clear her head at least, if not out of fear. Deep down, she knew that Jenos wouldn't hurt her; she didn't even know if he was capable of hurting a woman. However, the memory of that splatter of red and rolling in her stomach was enough to convince that she needed to leave.

But where would she go? Certainly not to her mother; that conversation would be a real gem for the family history books.  _"Oh, yeah, mama, that man I was telling you all about? Turns out he's a torpedo who bumps people off in his spare time. Mind if I stay with you for a bit?"_

Rinslet snorted; yeah, her mother was out of the question. She dealt with enough "I told you so" and "Listen to your mother!" without the old bird knowing where she'd been living and who she'd been living with.

She heard the front door of the apartment open and she sat up, folding her arms over her chest and looking resolutely away from the bedroom door, fixing her gaze on the pile of books in the corner. She could hear Jenos in the living room, his feet dragging over the carpet; a dim light crept under the bedroom door. She wondered if he kept pistols in the apartment and she dug her nails into her arms.

His footsteps approached the door and Rinslet glanced up at it as it opened, spilling light into the room. Jenos looked tired and down in the mouth; after a few moments, it seemed to click that Rinslet was wide awake and glaring at him and his expression turned confused.

"What's eating you, baby?" he asked, scrubbing a hand through his dark hair. Rinslet looked him up and down; there was no trace on him of what she'd seen him do.

"Nothing," she said coldly, "You just woke me up."


End file.
